heidi zhou castro reports. >> reporter: let's give a toast to denton, and a toast to sriracha, if yougot a bottle told her up. >> reporter: denton, texas a small town with a big taste for sriracha hot sauce. >> i put it on everything i eat. >> reporter: this city councilman said when he heard the town where the sauce was produced was declaring the smell a public knew sense, he wanted to get on board. >> we love it. >> reporter: hundreds attended a pepper rally to show them that texas would welcome sriracha with open arms and mouth. >> if you look at an aerial photograph of their current factory, it is nestled right in the middle of neighborhoods. here they will be miles away from the closest neighborhoods. >> reporter: he says that will spare his residents from suffering the burning eyes and throat that the california residents complained of. >> there is no new sense issue here. we have been in the plant. we have been outside the plant. right up next to where the chiles will being grinded and produced and there's no issue. >> >> reporter: but not everyone in denton is convinced. sarah

heidi zhou-castro is joining us. idi. >> denton texas is a young and progressive town and it's among this college-centric town that revolves around the university of texas that this hot sauce has raised to cult status. manufacturing the sauce here hasn't entered the conversation but it is an issue that the city of denton will have to credit court if its relationship with hot sauce continues. >> toast the hot sauce. >> denton, texas, a small town with a big taste for hot sauce. >> i put it on everything i eat. >> city councilman kevin rodin, when he heard the smell of hot sauce to be a public nuisance he immediately saw an opportunity for his own town's economic growth. >> some city is going to get on top of this and be the first one to get out there and invite them to move to their city and i thought why not denton, texas. >> hundreds credit attended a pepper sauce festival. >> their current factory is nestled right in the middle of a neighborhood. in texas we have wide open spaces so our industrial zoned area is mile

heidi zhou castro, al jazeera, dallas. >> videotaped confessions are often used in confessions.even in false confessions. we'll talk to a man who falsely confessed to murder. is justice really for all? >> confessions obtained during police interrogations are the favorite way of gaining convictions of criminals. a quarter of people who dna exon rates is because people have falsely confessed. we have more on the story. >> reporter: the justice department is the latest agency to require agents to record interviews of suspects. 21 states with similar laws but a lot of states across the country still do not require officers to tape interrogations. which can lead a suspect to confess to a crime he did not commit. it was a brief moment that jeffrey's words would haunt him for years. >> i falsely admitted to a murder and rape of a high school classmate. >> reporter: in 1990 he was only 16. the murder and rape consumed the small new york town. the police quickly focused on him. and after a 17-hour interrogation without his parents he confessed. >> i remember falsely telling them that the

heidi zhou-castro has more. >> so let's give a toast to denton and a toast to sriracha.if you have a bottle, hold it up. >> reporter: denton texas, a little town with a big taste for hot sauce. when he heard that irwindale, california had declared the spicy odor to be a public nuisance he immediately saw an opportunity for his own town's economic growth. >> some city is going oget on top of this and be the first one to invite them to move to their city. i thought, why not denton, texas. >> thousands turned out to welcome sriracha with open arms. >> here in texas we have wide open spaces so our industrial zoned area is miles away from the closest neighborhood. >> roden says that would save his texas residents from suffering the burning eyes and throat that california residents have complained about. >> the president says the odor is perfectly safe. see for themselves. >> there is no nuisance issue here. we have been right next to where the chiles have been ground and produced. there is no issue. >> good job. >> not everyone is convinced. sarah burke says they should do mo

heidi zhou castro has the story. >> reporter: mark went to vietnam at age 17.whatever happened he knew that his country would take care of him. >> there are promises from the military that they would care for us. >> reporter: in vietnam his unit was exposed to agent orange. it caused craney severe nerve damage and eventually disabled him by age 42. now at 64 his health conditions to decline. last spring a private ophthalmologist recommended a urgent operation to treat glaucoma. >> it was probably four months before i got to see the va eye doctor. >> reporter: by then he says his vision had deteriorated permanently. >> i can't read. i can't see street signs. it is--i can see colors and shapes. i can't see much. >> reporter: many vets we spoke to said it's common to wait month for a va appointment. yet in its last annual report the va claimed 93% of patients got in within 14 days of their desired appointment date. the disconnect as shown in previous reports may be in clinics deliberately misreporting wait times. federal inspectors have documented the practice in

heidi zhou-castro, al jazeera, dallas. >> hacking for change.nd software developers are gathering this weekend for the second national day of civic hacking. it's a global event. not exactly how it sounds. to share ideas. not hacking as you know it. as kevin mitnick knows it. i asked him if the government can trust hackers enough to wok together and how citizens can protect themselves from cyber-hackers. >> in the past there have been informants like jurcht peterson, he turned out -- justin earn peterson. who was doing credit card hacking. be selling them right under the secret service's nose as he's working as an informant. so traditionally, in hacker cases the informants that have been working for government have been actually kind of double-agents, doing illegal stuff on the side while at the same time doing stuff for the government. >> so let's just say you wanted to get into my bank account. if you sat down at a computer today could you do that? >> well, let me tell you that -- >> you were going to say you probably could. >> i get hired by c

. >> that's al jazeera's heidi zhou castro from texas. >>> the pentagon could be getting ready to make an unprecedented move for chelsea manning once known as bradley. published reports say she may be moved to a civilian facility and treated for gender treatment. she says she wants to live out her life as a woman and asked for treatment. >>> four couples all gay challenged the law approved by voters back in 2006. idaho's governor said that the state will appeal. officials say unless this day is granted they will begin issuing those marriage certificates friday morning. >>> well, the search continues today for those missing nigerian school girls. coming up on al jazeera america, we'll look at boko haram and how it uses islam to achieve it's goals. >> i'm ali velshi, the news has become this thing where you talk to experts about people, and al jazeera has really tried to talk to people, about their stories. we are not meant to be your first choice for entertainment. we are ment to be your first choice for the news. >> it was one month ago today girls kidnapped from their schools in niger

heidi zhou-castro explains. >> reporter: late last year as toyota marched towards a decision to move to texas, 32-year-old evitae crews was moving out of her apartment. rent had gone up another $100, becoming unaffordable. >> i spoke to the lady, the landlord and said "i need a few days", it's december, chris, this is - i have two children, i'm a single mother. >> she was told to move immediately. cruz and her two children lived at a hotel before finding a low income housing complex. >> this was my last option. i live in a shelter with my children. >> social advocates say the lose of affordable housing is the underbelly of the busy boom. nowhere is it evident than the state capital where the average rent has gone up 4-7% a near since 2010. >> it's a good thing that the economy is great and unemployment is low. but the downside is it has gotten very expense ito life here. >> in austin high-end development is pushing out the poor. >> reporter: this is the site of another low-income apartment demolished to make room for luxury condos. the affordable housing programme is so overwhelmed w

heidi zhou-castro has a veteran's story. >> reporter: when mark crany went to vietnam at the age of 17, he believed whatever happened, as long as he made it home, his country would take care of him. >> there's out and out promise from the military that they would care for us. . >> his unit was exposed it agent orange in vietnam. it cost him nerve damage and disabled him by age 42. at 64 his health is declining. last spring a private opthalmologist recommended an urgent operation to treat glaucoma. >> it was four months before i saw the va eye doctor. >> by then his vision deteriorated permanently. >> i can't read i can't see street signs. i can see colours, shapes - i can't see much in light conditions. >> many vets say it's common to wait months for a va medical appointment. in the last annual report the va claimed 93% of patients got in within 14 days of their desired appointment date. the disconnect, as shown in previous inspector general reports may be from clinics deliberately misreporting wait times. federal inspectors documented this practice in dallas and temple dating back to

heidi zhou-castro is outside a hospital for more. >> that inspector general report pointed to systematicblems with wait times at v.a. hospitals and clinics in phoenix and around the country. it's here that we heard from veterans who say they have had enough. >> reporter: they were promised in exchange for serving their country, their country would take care of them when they come home. >> we put our life on the line, literally. >> this man was wounded by shrapnel during his first month in vietnam. at age 56 he counts on the v.a. to treat the effects of his injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. he says making veterans weight for medical care is unconscionable. >> especially for some of his older veterans in the 60, and '70s. we need medical attention, like now. >> it hurts me and makes me angry. >> veterans we spoke to in dallas say the issues was wait times and delay treatment are nothing new. >> including the veterans health in danger. the longer they wait, you never know when the lord could take them home. >> air force veteran benjamin jones was not surprised by the inspector gene

heidi zhou-castro spoke with a man who knows the feeling of facing a death sentence for no reason atll. >> my name is anthony and i'm on death row. i'm on my typewriter. there are people on death row that are enjoyment. i am one of them. >> anthony gray says during his 18.5 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit, it was his letters that kept him sane. >> i wrote hundreds of thousands of letters to any and everybody asking them to help me save my life. >> he was sentenced to death for the 1992 murders of a family of six in somerville texas. despite the recan tags of the state's key witness and gray's protests of innocence, he was on death row. he says the days were filled with writing letters to his attorneys, families and friends, but the nights were filled with anguish. >> silence can be really loud, very loud. a lot of times all you hear is an eerie silence. that's it. eerie silence. and then just like that, somebody scream. i don't think i can do it any more. you know. after two people have been executed today. then you have three more in the week coming. >>> gray's execu